We Love New York

Chelette checking out Lion Brand's window display live model

We left D.C. on Friday, October 9 on the 7:30 Bolt Bus. The weather was cool but clear and dry. We had a great ride. Our bus driver was 15 minutes late, but he made up for the time and got us there by 12pm. We were well on our way after grabbing our first taxi. We checked into the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, unloaded our bags and were on our way.

The YarnCrawl consisted on 14 stores total and we were not sure how many we would be able to get to but we planned to do our best and cover as many as possible in the 3 days. Our route was planned……

Day One

1. Gotta Knit is all about service. They will hold your hand every step of the way through a project, from ensuring that cast on edge is nice and neat, to writing a custom pattern that will be a perfect fit, to finishing seams.

2. Lion Brand. We were very impressed with this store. The color display and the layout was very well organized. Not to mention the beautiful yarns at bargain prices. There was a live model in the window display knitting and crocheting.

3. Purl SoHo. Cute little shop nestled away in the soho neighborhood. The staff was very friendly and helpful. The Koigu choices were endless.

4. Purl Patchwork This was a fabric store, with beautiful fabric for quilting.

5. School Products This was the only store that we weren't to impressed with, and not because they didn't have great yarn or prices. The store was not well organized or updated. I did see some good prices on cashmere. We just didn't expect that it would look like a bargain basement.

6. Habu Textile. We arrived at Habu right when they were closing (6 pm), but they let us look around a bit. Habu gave me the feeling of being in an art gallery. Everything in the front room was displayed low on the floor in baskets --bundles of mohair, linen, cotton, paper, and many other fibers. We will have to hit this store on our next trip because I understand they have another side to the store which we didn’t get to see with lots of unusual fibers.

Day Two
1. String - we really liked this store. Great modern layout. The yarn was displayed so nicely. No clutter at all. If you wanted yarn. They had to go in the stock room to get it for you


2. Amy Ruth’s – Yummy....what a great place for brunch --we had the best chicken and waffles. The Waffles were so light just like I used to make for my kids. The chicken was finger licking GOOD♥ Just talking about it makes my mouth water. Definitely will be a must do on my next trip up.

3. Carol’s Daughter—cant go to NYC without stopping in this store. I love how they have added the mani/pedicure services just wish we had time to take advantage… maybe next time.

4. Knitty City. By this time all the yarn crawlers were out and the store was packed. Even though we were getting tired and feeling like it was time to call it quits, because we were getting crawled out all the excitement gave us the juice we needed to continue on.

Chelette and Arthella holding on tight to their Koigu purchases!!

5. Yarntopia This was our last stop. This was a nicely decorated store with a great window display. I found some great malabrigo to make a scarf and entered to win the store's contest. By this time it was 6:45 and the store was closing at 7pm (thank goodness because we were tired and our pockets were getting empty)

We did meet some new friends during the trip that were very helpful and gave us great tips about getting around. Thanks so much Laverne, stivel and Pyra . I bought some great stitch markers from Pyra and I was her first customer.

We ended up taking 13 cabs total. The subway was having some major work and we didn't want to venture into any unknown territory. I do think all in all it wasn't that more expensive going the cab route. Next time maybe we can get some of our wonderful NYC bloggers to guide us.

We didn’t make it to Brooklyn on Sunday we decided to relax in the hotel and KNIT. We definitely would do this trip again. The Bolt Bus was great because we got to knit going and coming. What can we say NYC is a great place to visit and definitely have some very nice yarn stores. The only thing we would change next time around maybe to catch a bus or subway, but the cabs worked out just fine especially time wise. There are plenty of great pictures posted here...